Brian Sears is among the top drivers in the history of harness racing’s Breeders Crown series, with 16 titles and $6 million in purses, despite not getting his first win until 2003.
On Saturday, Sears will have ample opportunity to add to his totals when he drives in the Breeders Crown Finals for two- and three-year-olds at the Meadowlands Racetrack. And while any Breeders Crown victory is special, one might stand above the rest.
Sears, who will turn 41 in January, can give his father, Jay, his first Breeders Crown trophy by winning with Native Bride in the race for three-year-old filly pacers. Jay Sears and Matt Gallagher co-own Native Bride, who has won 16 of 20 races this season and 19 of 23 in her career. She is coming off a two-length victory over Kellys Keepsake in her Breeders Crown elimination race on November 22.
“That would be great, there’s no question about it,” Brian Sears said about winning a Breeders Crown for his father. “That would be the thrill of a lifetime. This has been a lot of fun for him.”
Native Bride was supplemented to the Breeders Crown for $62,500. She missed a good part of her two-year-old season because of surgery to remove a bone chip from a hind ankle, although she went three-for-three at Florida’s Pompano Park toward the end of the year.
This season, she was a standout on the Pennsylvania circuit and won the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes championship on her way to being named the series’ Horse of the Year. Following her success during the summer, the owners decided to supplement Native Bride to the Glen Garnsey and Matron stakes. She won both and enters the Breeders Crown Final with a streak of seven consecutive victories. She has earnings of $482,234 this year.
“(Gallagher) connected a lot of the dots,” Jay Sears said. “If she’d been totally mine, I’d have quit after the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and been tickled to death. But she’d made the money (to supplement), so what the heck. Brian started to believe in her and made me believe we could do some good. I never imagined we’d be in this kind of race. It’s been a dream come true for me and Brian and Matt.”
Brian Sears, who has taken over the top spot in the Meadowlands’ driving colony since his arrival five years ago, has won more than 6,500 races in his career. This season, he ranks second in purse earnings among all drivers in North America, with $15.5 million.
Jay Sears, who is on the U.S. Trotting Association Board of Directors and is a former executive director of the Florida Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association, got his 1,500th driving win recently. His father, Gene, is in the Florida Harness Racing Hall of Fame. Jay Sears picked up his biggest win as an owner when Native Bride won the Matron Stakes and is looking forward to Saturday’s Breeders Crown final.
“To have Brian makes it so special; I couldn’t have a better driver,” Jay Sears said. “This has exceeded my wildest expectations.”
(HRC)